Society for Humanistic Anthropology Section Report to the American Anthropological Association

Society for Humanistic Anthropology
Section Report to the American Anthropological Association

December 30, 2002

This report seeks to describe Society for Humanistic Anthropology activities from December 4, 2001 to November 24, 2002.

The officers for the year of the report:
President: Daniel W. Ingersoll, Jr. (2001-2002) dwingersoll@smcm.edu
Vice-President: Alma Gottlieb, (2001-2002) ajgottli@uiuc.edu
Immediate Past President: Regna Darnell rdarnell@julian.uwo.ca
Treasurer designated by the Editor: Frederic W. Gleach fwg1@cornell.edu
Secretary: Vilma Santiago-Irizarry vs23@cornell.edu
Editor of Anthropology and Humanism: Edith Turner elt9w@virginia.edu
Executive Board members:
Catherine Lutz, Gregory Reck
Board members:
Ivan Brady, JoAnn D'Alisera, Bruce Grindal, Michelle Johnson, Barry P. Michrina, Kirin Narayan, Miles Richardson, Jeanne Simonelli, Margaret J. Wiener
Special Committees and Functions in 2002:
Poetry Competition: Dell Hymes and Ivan Brady
Fiction Competition: Gregory Reck
Turner Prize Committee: Claire Farrer, Barbara Babcock, and James A. Boon
Program Chairs: Alma Gottlieb and JoAnn D'Alisera
Web master: Daniel W. Ingersoll, Jr.
Student paper competition: Michelle Johnson

Publications:
The column "Society for Humanistic Anthropology" in Anthropology Newsletter is edited by Frederic W. Gleach and Vilma Santiago-Irizarry. The editors have contributed interesting pieces to the column while publishing timely information for our membership and readership.

The society's journal is edited by Edith Turner. She has done a fine job assembling special topical issues of the journal and keeping the journal on track. Post-editorial problems beyond the editor's control held up distribution of the journal in 2000 and 2001, but the journal is now on schedule. Other editors include: Fiction Editor, Gregory Reck; Poetry Editor, Dell Hymes; Book Review Editor, and Paul Benson.

Awards at the 2002 AAA Annual Meeting:
Each year three categories of awards are made. The Victor Turner Prize winner ($500) and one or two honorable mentions, are for innovative books which best embody humanistic anthropology. The winner and honorable mentions are invited to read selections from their work at a special session at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Readings in Humanistic Anthropology: From Ethnography to Poetics to Fiction). The winner in 2002 was Henry S. Sharp for Loon: Memory, Meaning and Reality in a Northern Dene Community. Honorable mentions went to Mary Weismantel for Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes, and to Catherine Lutz for Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century. This year's committee members were Claire Farrer (chair), Barbara Babcock, and James Boon. Winners of the annual Poetry and Fiction Competitions also read selections from their works at the special session, along with the Victor Turner awardees; the winning selections are published in Anthropology and Humanism. This year, no Fiction Winner was announced. First prize in the Poetry competition went to Tracy Lewis; second prize to Brian and Roberta Swann; and third place went to Debra Nystrom and Hushang Philsooph.

Meeting Program, at the AAA Annual Meeting 2002:
The SHA held a Board Meeting and a Business Meeting on Thursday, November 21, at 7:30-9:30 a.m. and 6:15-7:30 p.m. respectively. The approved minutes of the 2001 SHA Meeting and the Treasurer's reports will be posted on the SHA web site. The web site address is www.smcm.edu/sha.

At this year's meeting the following invited sessions were sponsored by the Society for Humanistic Anthropology: Bringing the Past Into the Present: Family Narratives of Holocaust and Exile; and Translation and/as Ethnographic Practice. A special awards session was supported by the SHA: Readings in Humanistic Anthropology: From Ethnography to Poetics to Fiction. The following sessions were co-sponsored by the SHA with other AAA sections: New Orleans Lives: Ethnographic, Archival, and Mediated Perspectives on Life Histories; Healing and Popular Culture in Africa and the Diaspora; Anthropological Journeys: Travel and Writing, Distance and Difference; and Anthropology in Different Voices.

Workshops, at the AAA Annual Meeting 2021:
A series of workshops sponsored by the SHA have been quite popular and have served both as a resource for budding anthropologists and as major fund raisers to support our journal. The workshops this year: Ethnographic Writing; How to Publish Your First Article; How to Turn Your Dissertation into a Book (2); Narrative Practice in Ethnography and Fiction; Creative Writing for Anthropologists; How to Write an Effective Book Prospectus; and Writing for the General Public.

Treasurer's Report for 2002:
The SHA budget this year was hurt by the timing of our dues increase, too late for the beginning-of-year mailings, but clarifications from the AAA concerning publication costs for Anthropology and Humanism kept us solvent. The dues increase has now taken effect, and a membership drive is well underway. Revised E&P costs have further improved our position, and our workshops continue to have strong enrollments. The Turner Prize Fund continues to grow.

Officer and Board Goals for 2003
1. Membership drive: continue with plan to increase membership
2. A student paper competition was approved in principle, and a program will be implemented
3. Revise bylaws and bring before membership for approval
4. Expand SHA web offerings
5. Seek to have Anthropology and Humanism join the ISI (Institute of Scientific Information) journals database.
6. Produce a guide/schedule of duties for all officers and committees members

Respectfully submitted,
Daniel W. Ingersoll, Jr.
President, Society for Humanistic Anthropology (2000-2002)

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